LOS ANGELES — There’s a saying commonly attributed to Benjamin Franklin that states, “If you fail to plan, you’re planning to fail.” This is especially true when it comes to business planning, and coming up with a marketing strategy is crucial to this facet of the process.

Patty Ross shared this advice during her recent Service Corps of Retired Executives (SCORE) webinar, “How to Create a Marketing Plan for Your Small Business.” She is a social media expert, brand manager and business marketing advisor at Golden State Marketing in Los Angeles.

In Part 1 of this series, we looked at the importance of planning a marketing strategy, and using SWOT analysis and a company’s unique selling proposition (USP) to provide the data necessary. In Part 2, we examined how to identify and understand a company’s ideal customers through brand archetypes and buyer personas.

Today, we’ll conclude by exploring how to build a brand, create a marketing budget and measure the success of the company’s marketing efforts.

Ross believes that consistency in marketing should span all aspects of a company’s operations.

“Everything you do crafts your story,” she says. “Every touchpoint a potential customer sees — whether it’s your website, social media, marketing materials, storefront, delivery vans, uniforms or other — should be consistent. Confused buyers don’t buy.”

Ross cautions business owners to not take shortcuts when it comes to customer outreach — and she’s seen that one particular shortcut comes up repeatedly.

“I hear this all the time,” she says. “‘Oh, I’ll just have my 17-year-old daughter do my social media. She’s great at creating Instagram reels,’ or, ‘I’ll have my receptionist do it in between clients or something.’ You need to treat marketing the same way you treat your HR or accounting. You wouldn’t have your kid who gets A’s in math be your accountant.”

Ross believes that a company’s brand story should clearly communicate why the business exists and what makes it unique. While large chains may struggle to connect personally with customers, small businesses have an advantage — in the case of dry cleaners, customers want to know who’s caring for their clothes and why they should trust them.

Key elements of a brand story include:

• Why was your business created?
• What are your core values?
• How do you deliver on your promises?
• What makes your service distinctive?

“Who are you as a business?” Ross asks. “What is it that makes your brand tick? How do you want to see your brand out there? How does it live up to that? How will it live up to that?”

Visual branding is also key to connecting with today’s consumers, Ross says, with essential visual elements including:

• Professional photos of the facility
• Images of the team
• Consistent logo usage
• A unified color scheme across all materials

For a dry cleaner’s visual branding, for example, before-and-after photos of successful cleaning projects would be valuable assets. 

“It’s important to share who you are,” Ross says. “People connect with people.”

Ross recommends setting aside 10% of revenue for marketing efforts.

“If you’re not making any revenue, that would be kind of hard, so it might be less,” she says, “but generally, we say 10% of your revenue would be the budget for marketing. The more you spend, the more reach you’re going to have.” 

Many companies, when budgets are lean and sales are down, are tempted to cut marketing efforts as a “non-essential” expense. Ross strongly disagrees with this school of thought. 

“The marketing budget isn’t something you should cut out when things are bad,” she says. “That’s something you should keep. You need money to make money. So, you should think about your marketing budget above anything else in order to make money. Obviously, you need money for staff and inventory, but you should have a marketing budget in place.”

When allotting a marketing budget, small-business owners should consider:

• Advertising costs (print, digital, outdoor, etc.)
• Marketing materials
• Website maintenance
• Social media management
• Email marketing platforms
• Staff training
• Professional photography

Once a marketing strategy is set up and running, drycleaning owners should keep an eye on performance, and be willing to tweak — or potentially rethink — their efforts.

“You’ve done all this work,” Ross says. “You’re out there on social media, you’re sending out your emails and doing your billboards, or whatever you’re doing in your mix. Now, you have to measure these efforts and make sure they are working. Is it converting? Am I hitting my goals?”

Ross suggests that key metrics to track include:

Website Performance:

• Visitor numbers
• Page views
• Time on site
• Contact form submissions

Social Media:

• Follower growth
• Engagement rates
• Click-through rates
• Customer interactions

Email Marketing:

• Open rates
• Click rates
• Conversion rates
• List growth

Business Metrics:

• New customer acquisition
• Customer retention rates
• Average order value
• Revenue growth

Owners and managers must make adjustments based on this data to optimize their company’s marketing efforts and improve its return on investment — and this requires constant monitoring.

“It’s a lot of information to look at,” she says. “Make sure you have somebody who knows how to look under the hood. It’s very important — just like your accountant is looking at your numbers.”

The key thing to keep in mind about marketing, Ross says, is that it isn’t an expense. It’s an investment in growth — but only if it’s properly planned, executed and maintained. 

“Marketing is just telling people what you do, over and over again,” Ross says. “But you want to make sure you’re telling the right people in the right place at the right time and with consistency.”

To read earlier parts of this series: Part 1 — Part 2